Building reg fees

[Diagro]

It's not crazy at all.

Building Regs are there to ensure any construction work is undertaken safely and to meet standards.

You do sound like you're attempting to become a cowboy builder who doesn't want to meet those standards.

Hey hey hey, that last paragraph is uncalled for.

I even stated I'll be contacting them and paying what needs to be paid.

It's extra funds which I need to raise, of course I'm going to be grumpy about it.

Not sure how a person doing their own building works can possibly make them a cow boy builder, especially if they plan to go above and beyond the regulations in place.

 

[Diagro]

As above, people will not buy houses that don't have building regs for conversions. Just stop being a cheapskate and pay for it, or you'll paying even more down the line when you have to knock 10's of thousands off the price.

If you don't have building regs, and the new owners try to do further building work, they're liable to have to pay to "rectify" your conversion by converting back and having it done to regs. You'll have that negotiated off the price. Indemnity insurance doesn't cover that risk, and we had a solicitor advise us not to continue a house purchase based on this (and we did indeed pull out, and saw the house re-listed a couple of weeks later for £30k less!).

Oddly enough, we have a friend trying to get an extension done and most builders are turning their nose up at including building regs! Just goes to show the state of some tradesmen. Cowboys everywhere.

100% agree.

I'll be getting it, because of the reasons you state.

 

[a1ex2001]

See how much an Approved Inspector (non local authority) would charge. Tend to be cheaper, a lot more user friendly / amenable and quicker to respond.

Used an AI for my loft conversion and extension

Totally this I will never go near a council inspector again far to many jobsworths who somehow don’t seem to know the regs they are supposedly enforcing and get off on little power trips.

 

[a1ex2001]

As above, people will not buy houses that don't have building regs for conversions. Just stop being a cheapskate and pay for it, or you'll paying even more down the line when you have to knock 10's of thousands off the price.

If you don't have building regs, and the new owners try to do further building work, they're liable to have to pay to "rectify" your conversion by converting back and having it done to regs. You'll have that negotiated off the price. Indemnity insurance doesn't cover that risk, and we had a solicitor advise us not to continue a house purchase based on this (and we did indeed pull out, and saw the house re-listed a couple of weeks later for £30k less!).

Oddly enough, we have a friend trying to get an extension done and most builders are turning their nose up at including building regs! Just goes to show the state of some tradesmen. Cowboys everywhere.

People by houses all the time that don’t have building regs approval for work previously undertaken, it’s where those crappy indemnity insurances and renegotiating the sale price comes in.

 

[MassiveJim]

Why did you need to do this?

The floor was creaking horribly, so I always planned to pull it up and see what was going on when I got around to decorating the room.
It turns out that the floor has been cowboy'ed so whilst I am spending the money to correct it, I decided I might as well have it signed off with building control at the same time, it will prevent further issues in future regarding house insurance and if we decide to sell up.

I could have gotten away without doing it, the house was bought with an indemnity policy in place, but I felt happier getting it signed off.

Building inspector did the first inspection and was happy with the other work. the only extra step I need to take it to dig a small hole in front of the property so that they can see what footings are in place for the walls where the old garage door has been bricked up.

 

[Diagro]

The floor was creaking horribly, so I always planned to pull it up and see what was going on when I got around to decorating the room.
It turns out that the floor has been cowboy'ed so whilst I am spending the money to correct it, I decided I might as well have it signed off with building control at the same time, it will prevent further issues in future regarding house insurance and if we decide to sell up.

I could have gotten away without doing it, the house was bought with an indemnity policy in place, but I felt happier getting it signed off.

Building inspector did the first inspection and was happy with the other work. the only extra step I need to take it to dig a small hole in front of the property so that they can see what footings are in place for the walls where the old garage door has been bricked up.

What footings did you have to add?

Would photos suffice? Why make you dig a hole?

Hmm, might just leave a hole open after laying the foundation if they want to see it.

 

[{SAS}TB]

They are likely to want to see the footings dug to the appropriate depth and onto load bearing strata. May also want to see the pegs / stakes identifying the depth of the footings and then after the pour also to ensure they are the correct size

 

[Diagro]

They are likely to want to see the footings dug to the appropriate depth and onto load bearing strata. May also want to see the pegs / stakes identifying the depth of the footings and then after the pour also to ensure they are the correct size

Kinda mad really. The only load will be small amount of bricks and a window.

But yea, I see the point

 

[MassiveJim]

The load bearing is only for the small wall under the window, as the original arch/brickwork above the garage doors was left in place, so the load bearing from the wall above shouldn't have been changed from the original structure.

The building inspector said that they have probably built the small wall on the concrete slab that is the garage floor, and this will be sufficient support for the small amount of weight from these 2 small walls.
They just need to see it.

 

[BF-Bert]

Luckily it's a double skinned garage, so I don't need to worry about internal framing and insulation. The garage walls already been filled with insulation when they did the house years back.

I think you may have to bring the outer wall insulation up to current spec so the insulation in place may not be sufficient.

 

[Derek W]

Not sure how a person doing their own building works can possibly make them a cow boy builder, especially if they plan to go above and beyond the regulations in place.

What footings did you have to add?

Would photos suffice? Why make you dig a hole?

Hmm, might just leave a hole open after laying the foundation if they want to see it.

I think you've just answered your own statement. How can you be going above and beyond the regulations if you don't even understand why the inspector wanted to see the foundations that MassiveJim mentioned in his post? Someone's put in a footing which has been inadequate because presumably they didn't know what they were doing and a fault has occurred further down the line which Jim's had to remedy himself at his cost. We had a project recently where the council had asked for a completion certificate for work which was carried out in 1984, not by ourselves, not for our client but by the looks of things it was never completed. The previous owner carried out the work and then sold it however many years down the line but its our client that's now paying the price by chasing solicitors to see why the paperwork wasn't picked up in the sale of the property. Not a good situation to be in.